Cooling apparatus having a cooling conduit

ABSTRACT

A cooling apparatus is disclosed. The cooling apparatus includes a carrier and a flat-plate type cooling conduit. The flat-plate type cooling conduit is made of a high thermal conductive material and disposed on or in the carrier. The flat-plate type cooling conduit includes a conduit portion and a flat plate portion. The conduit portion has a conducting hole for conducting a coolant, and the flat plate portion is adhered to the carrier for allowing the coolant to perform heat exchange through a large contact area between the flat plate portion and the carrier. In addition, a cooling source gel can be used to perform heat exchange with the coolant in the conducting hole in order to improve the heat exchange efficiency of the cooling apparatus, and to effectively reduce the temperature of the carrier.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Taiwanese Patent Application No. 101133084, filed on Sep. 11, 2012. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to cooling apparatuses, and, more particularly, to a cooling apparatus having a cooling conduit.

2. Description of Related Art

In recent years, demands for water-cooled cooling apparatus are growing, and related products, such as cooling clothing, cooling bedding or cooling mattress, are booming.

A conventional cooling apparatus (such as cooling clothes) involves the addition of water pipes inside a carrier (such as clothing), and a coolant (such as icy water) is filled in the pipes and stored in a water reservoir. The coolant is pumped by a pump, so that the coolant can be moved in a circulating flow within the pipes, and the coolant and the carrier (or human body) may undergo heat exchange, thereby reducing the temperature of the carrier (or human body).

However, the cooling apparatus uses ordinary water pipes, and the contact areas between the water pipes with the carrier are relatively small. Also, the water pipes are made of the common thermal conductive material, resulting in poor heat exchange between the water pipes and the carrier (or human body).

Furthermore, coolant such as icy water is stored in the reservoir of the cooling apparatus. Since the coolant only stays cold for a short time, the cooling apparatus cannot be used over a long period of time. Meanwhile, when all the ice is melt to water, the temperature of the coolant will rise rapidly, resulting in excessive fluctuations of the temperature of the cooling apparatus.

Therefore, it is an important issue to develop an apparatus for overcoming the aforementioned shortcomings of the prior art.

SUMMARY

A cooling apparatus is disclosed. The cooling apparatus includes a carrier and a flat-plate type cooling conduit. The flat-plate type cooling conduit is made of a high thermal conductive material and disposed on or in the carrier. The flat-plate type cooling conduit includes a conduit portion and a flat plate portion. The conduit portion has a conducting hole for conducting a coolant, and the flat plate portion adhered to the carrier for allowing the coolant to perform heat exchange through a large contact area between the flat plate portion and the carrier. In addition, a cooling source gel can be used to perform heat exchange with the coolant in the conducting hole in order to improve the heat exchange efficiency of the cooling apparatus and to effectively reduce the temperature of the carrier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating a plan view of a cooling apparatus according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram illustrating the cross-sectional view of a flat-plate type cooling conduit of the cooling apparatus shown in FIG. 1A along a line AA;

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating comparisons between temperature variation curves for the flat-plate type cooling conduit having a material with high thermal conductivity according to the present disclosure and other cooling methods; and

FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating comparisons between temperature variation curves of the cooling source gel and ice according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a through understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will he apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating a plan view of a cooling apparatus 100 according to the present disclosure. FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross-sectional view of a flat-plate type cooling conduit 120 of the cooling apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1A along a line AA.

The cooling apparatus 100 includes a carrier 110 and a flat-plate type cooling conduit 120. The carrier 110 can be clothing, bedding, mattresses, chair cushions, cushions, back cushions or the like.

The flat-plate type cooling conduit 120 is made of a material with high thermal conductivity, or a combination of the high thermal conductive material and a flexible material. The high thermal conductive material can be, for example, a metal material (such as metal powders), nanomaterial or thermal conductive carbon material.

The flexible material can be, for example, silicone, latex, rubber, silicone, fiberglass, nylon, Teflon, polyurethane (PU), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), perfluoroalkoxy fluorocarbon (PFA), perfluorinated ethylene-propylene (FEP), acrylonitrile-butadience styrene plastics (ABS), or the like.

The flat-plate type cooling conduit 120 is flexible and disposed in the interior or on a surface of the carrier 110. The flat-plate type cooling conduit 120 includes a conduit portion 121 integrally formed with or combined with a flat plate portion 122. The cross-sectional shape of the conduit portion 121 can be circular or oval-shaped, and the cross-sectional shape of the flat plate portion 122 can be rectangular.

The conduit portion 121 and the plate portion 122 are disposed in such a way that they meander on the surface of or within the carrier 110. The conduit portion 121 may optionally extend outside the carrier 110 and form a loop.

The conduit portion 121 has a conducting hole 123 for conducting a coolant, so that the coolant can circulate within the conducting hole 123 of the conduit portion 121. The coolant can be water, ice, or a mixture thereof. The coolant may include an antifreeze agent or a pigment.

The flat plate portion 122 is adhered or bonded to the surface or inside of he carrier 110, so that the coolant undergoes heat exchange through the large contact areas between the flat plate portion 122 and the carrier 110, thereby improving the heat exchange efficiency of the flat-plate type cooling conduit 120. As such, when a user uses the cooling apparatus 100, the flat-plate type cooling conduits 120 and the coolant within the conducting hole 123 carry out heat exchange with the carrier 110 and the user's body, thereby reducing the temperature of carrier 110 and in turn the use's body temperature.

The cooling apparatus 100 may further include a container 130 and a cooling source gel 131. The container 130 may be a reservoir for receiving the cooling source gel 131 and water 132. The conduit portion 121 passes through the container 130, and is in contact with the cooling source gel 131 or the water 132.

The cooling source gel 131 may be encapsulated in a covering 133. The covering 133 may be placed in the water 132, and the cooling source gel 131 is used for performing heat exchange with the coolant within the conducting hole 123 in order to reduce the rising speed or slope of the temperature of the coolant, or to reduce the temperature of the coolant.

The cooling source gel 131 includes polymer and bubbles, and thus the cooling source gel 131 has poor heat transfer. Therefore, due to the low heat transfer property of the cooling source gel 131, the cooling apparatus 100 may stay cold for a longer period of time, such that the use time of the cooling apparatus 100 is increased.

The cooling source gel 131 may be water-added thickener. The composition of this thickener may include polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), carbopol, cellulose, cellulose starch, agar powder, alginic sodium, chitosan or the like.

The cooling apparatus 100 may further include a control unit 140 connected to the conduit portion 121, and the control unit 140 can be provided outside or inside the carrier 110. The control unit 140 may be a controller, a switch, a switching element or a motor, for turning on or off the circulating flow of the coolant within the conduit portion 121, or for adjusting the direction, for example, a clockwise direction 124 or a counterclockwise direction 125, of the circulation the coolant within the conduit portion 121.

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating comparisons between temperature variation curves for the flat-plate type cooling conduit having a material with high thermal conductivity of the present disclosure and other cooling methods.

As shown, temperature measurement can be carried out on a carrier. The initial temperature is 35° C. The temperature drop in a temperature variation curve 151 of the carrier is the slowest for cooling the carrier through air only. Furthermore, the temperature drop in a temperature variation curve 152 of the carrier for cooling the card through a waterpipe is relatively quicker than that of the method of cooling through air.

Moreover, the temperature drop in a temperature variation curve 153 of the carrier for cooling the carrier through a flat-plate type cooling conduit without a high thermal conductive material is quicker than that of cooling through a water pipe. In contrast, the temperature drop in a temperature variation curve 154 of the carrier for cooling the carrier through a flat-plate type cooling conduit having a high thermal conductive material is the fastest. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the high thermal conductive material used is aluminum powder, and the flexible material is silicone, wherein when the proportion of the aluminum powder to be added is 30%, the heat transfer coefficient of silicone can increase from 0.7 W/mK originally up to 1.4 W/mk. The highest proportion of the aluminum powder that can be added is 70%, which make the heat transfer coefficient reach up to 2.6 W/mk. Furthermore, the high thermal conductive material can also be Al, Au, Ag, Cu, AlN, Al₂O₃, SiC, BeO, diamond powder, carbon material, graphite, silicon, silica, BN or a mixture of the above, or the above material after nanolization or a mixture thereof. The heat transfer coefficient of the high thermal conductive material can be between 0.5˜1500 W/mk. A preferable heat transfer coefficient of the high thermal conductive material is 50 w/mk or above in order to achieve a higher heat exchange efficiency of the flat-plate type cooling conduit.

FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating comparisons between temperature variation curves of the cooling source gel of the present disclosure and ice.

As shown, for the cooling source gel of the present disclosure, when temperatures are measured for 250 grams of the cooling source gel and 100 grams of water, the temperature rising slope 173 of a temperature variation curve 162 is less steep, meaning that there is less variation the temperature, thus reducing the fluctuation of the temperature.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only with a true scope of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A cooling apparatus comprising: a carrier; and a flat-plate type cooling conduit made of a high thermal conductive material, disposed on or in the carrier, and comprising: a conduit portion having a conducting hole for conducting a coolant; and a flat plate portion adhered to the carrier for allowing the coolant to perform heat exchange through a contact area between the flat plate portion and the carrier.
 2. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier is clothing, bedding, mattresses, chair cushions, cushions, or back cushions.
 3. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the flat-plate type cooling conduit is made of a combination of a flexible material and the high thermal conductive material.
 4. The cooling apparatus of claim 3, in the flexible material is silicone, latex, rubber, silicone, fiberglass, nylon, Teflon, polyurethane (PU), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), perfluoroalkoxy fluorocarbon (PFA), perfluorinated ethylene-propylene (FEP), or acrylonitrile-butadience styrene plastics (ABS).
 5. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the high thermal conductive material is Al, Au, Ag, Cu, AlN, Al2O3, SiC, BeO, diamond powder, carbon material, graphite, silicon, silica, BN or a mixture thereof, or Al, Au, Ag, Cu, AlN, Al2O3, SiC, BeO, diamond powder, carbon material, graphite, silicon, silica, BN or a mixture thereof after nanolization.
 6. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conduit portion has a circular or oval-shaped cross-section, and the flat plate portion has a rectangular cross-section.
 7. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the coolant includes water, ice or a mixture thereof.
 8. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a cooling source gel for performing heat exchange with the coolant in the conducting hole.
 9. The cooling apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a container for receiving the cooling source gel, wherein the conduit portion passes through the container.
 10. The cooling apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a control unit connected to the conduit portion for turning on or off a circulating flow of the coolant inside the conduit portion, or for adjusting a direction of circulation of the coolant inside the conduit portion. 